The present invention relates to motor vehicles in general, and more particularly to an arrangement for influencing the keeping of the driving direction by a motor vehicle which has at least one non-driven wheel.
In the field of manufacturing motor vehicles, it is customary to design the motor vehicle in such a manner that it follows the steering movements of the driver who desires to maintain the motor vehicle on a desired course and that the handling of the motor vehicle is relatively easy for the driver. However, disturbing forces and moments act on the motor vehicle during the operation thereof. Such disturbing influences are caused by driving through curves, braking, side wind and varying surface qualities of the roadway, and they all tend to deviate the motor vehicle from the desired driving direction or course. It is desired to keep the deviating movements which are caused by the aforementioned disturbing forces and moments at a level which is as low as possible and which can be easily corrected within the reaction time of the driver. Nevertheless, during the operation of the motor vehicle at critical operating conditions, that is, when the action of the driver causes the motor vehicle to leave the limiting range of the lateral guiding forces caused by frictional engagement of the vehicle tires with the roadway, either in that the driver exceeds the handling capabilities of the motor vehicle, or because the motor vehicle travels on a smooth or icy roadway, the motor vehicle experiences an unstable driving condition which, in most instances, is manifested by swerving of the rear end of the motor vehicle. In order to bring the motor vehicle back into the stable driving range, the driver must then react very quickly by both turning the steering wheel and actuating the gas pedal in the correct manner. The recognition of the signals which are triggered by an unstable driving condition and the correct responses to such signals can be learned only by extensive driver training under realistic driving conditions.
The driver training of this kind has heretofore been mostly conducted on driving surfaces which were made smooth by applying grease, soap or other chemical slippage-enhancing substances. The application of such slippage-enhancing substances on the roadways or other driving surfaces, and their subsequent removal, are very time-consuming and expensive, and in most instances results in environmental pollution. Furthermore, when driver training is being conducted for this purpose on a more or less permanent basis, there have also been already used synthetic plastic material coatings with a smooth upper surface on the driving surfaces of such areas. However, such coatings are very expensive and, for all intents and purposes, make the affected area for any use other than for teaching the vehicle skid counteracting techniques useless.